1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to surgical simulators.
2. Description of Related Art
Learning microsurgical skills is a hands-on process that typically requires numerous hours of practice in the operating room with real patients. This approach is costly since it slows down the pace of operations, dangerous since it exposes patients to less skilled operators, limiting since only the patients with whatever maladies they might have are available for the learner to experience, and inefficient since learning can only occur when a staffed operating room, a patient, and a skilled mentor are available.
There are approaches that attempt to avoid the need for learning in the operating room. These typically fall into either the use of inanimate surrogate anatomic models, the use of cadavers, or the use of live animal models. Each has distinct disadvantages in that they: do not well represent the actual human anatomy, cannot support a variety of variations in geometry, mechanical properties, or systemic physiologic response to interaction, are often either single- or limited-time use, require specialized facilities and personnel to set up and maintain during training sessions that learners must come to, tend to be costly, and/or require experienced mentors to observe learner actions and provide feedback